Rio: Appalachia (IDK Collection)
by Digital Riot
Summary: This is the story of the beginning. The beginning of Jewels life that is. She is the future queen of the village and must train in order to succeed her father. Jewel trains with friends and enemies to tackle.
1. Chapter 1

Jewel was only a tiny little chick, just emerged from her shell.

Jewel was the only egg inside of the nest, and the most precious thing to her parents. Following the week after the egg was laid her mother and father worked 24/7 to make sure that Jewel would have access to food and comfort.

Her hatching finally signaled the end of at least a month of preparation and the hardest part. But Jewel didn't care as she slept peacefully. Still only about 5 hours alive on this planet, and her parents cherished every second.

"Isn't she precious Matilda?" Jewel's father asked a female six macaw next to him.

"No, she is more than that. A Jewel of the forest, right Eduardo?" Matilda asked her companion.

A nod of the head signaled a yes from Eduardo.

Jewel stirred in her sleep as her parents watched on. She opened her emerald green eyes, her parents getting even more ecstatic than ever.

Jewel tried to stand up, her legs too weak to support her body, she just picked up her head and looked at her parents.

"Awwww " Eduardo and Matilda cooed over their baby bird.

Jewel blinked, her large eyes so … so adorable.

"Isn't she adorable Eduardo" Matilda asked.

"She has your feathers dear, of course she is !" Eduardo said.

The beginning of Jewels life was that unlike another bird in the village. After all she was the daughter of the village leader.

Usually being given anything she wanted,

Again trying to walk, failing she picked her head up and looked outside of her hollow.

A crisp afternoon air hung in the amazon. A cool 68 degrees, and big fluffy white clouds seemed to defy gravity.

The Amazon was teeming with life, some animals were like Jewel just born , new to the world. Others were ready to leave the world and go someplace else to do…. Stuff.

Her parents wrapped a wing around Jewel and they all had a little rest.

The beginning of Jewels life was that unlike another bird in the village. After all she was the daughter of the village leader.

Usually being given anything she wanted, spoiled rotten was the term most of the villagers used when they described her.

But her parents didn't think of it as being spoiled they thought of it as being "blessed". Everytime Jewel ate more than she was supposed to to, her parents called it a good appetite. When ever she took another child toy, her parents wood say she was getting used to her fair share as future village queen.

Jewel was however in for a big surprise. Since she was to be the future queen of the tribe her parents had tried to train her to become more fair, and stronger. Weaning her off of her dependency of her parents.

And this is her story.

I looked outside my hollow, today was my birthday. My dad always told me how when I grew up I wood lead the tribe, something I was looking forward to.

My dad always told me stories of how he became leader, being a great singer. He would always go around the nest singing the songs when he was in his prime years.

"You aint nothing but a hound dog

Crying all the time

You aint nothing but a hound dog

Crying all the time

Well you aint never caught a rabbit and you aint no friend of mine.

Well, they said you was high class

Well, that was just a lie

Well, they said you was high class

Well, that was just a lie

Well you aint never caught a rabbit and you aint no friend of mine

You aint nothing but a hound dog

Crying all the time

You aint nothing but a hound dog

Crying all the time

Well you aint never caught a rabbit and you aint no friend of mine."

It was a nice song, some people called him the king both literally and figuratively. Since you know, he was the leader of the tribe and he was apparently the king of music in the village.

But the flipside is that I hear that song too many times in one day now, and Im starting to hate it. Well, my Aunt Mimi always says "just try and tolerate it".

But I don't mind much anymore, my father himself said I was going on some kind of training day out in the jungle to learn how to survive or something like that.

And I want looking forward to that. The only good thing was that Roberto would come too, my closest friend.

His parents were forcing him to go outside too. Other kids were heading out to learn about this survival thing. From what Roberto told me they would throw us in this little valley and teach us how to eat bugs out the dirt, how to skin a poisonous leaf, and how to drink water from a palm tree.

Not really looking forward to eating bugs, but I would still get to be alone with Roberto without my parents.

Another good thing I should mention is that some of my best friends is coming along for the ride too. And a downside… some of my worst enemies.

My friends, like myself, know nothing of how to survive. We would be guided by my father and by some Red Macaw just a little younger than my own father.

The blue macaw tribe usually used the place as a hunting ground for the best berries, but a strange swarm of bees chased everyone outside, my friend Tex said that they were hornets or wasps or something like that.

In fact my neighbor used to live over there and when he moved here he was covered in tiny little dots, from the things.

The wasps eventually moved out and the red and blue macaw tribes decided to make it into a field area for training.

And tomorrow me and about twenty other kids would be led into the forest area of that field. Roberto told me that I shouldn't worry about a thing and the biggest thing he was scared of was those killer bee's, which you can't blame him.

I mean I wouldn't want to come back home looking like the shell of a ladybug, legends say it was those humans.

Humans.

The very sound of the word would send shivers down anyone's spine.

My father always told me about them, tall, pink, and so intelligent nothing can stop them. To me it sounded like giant monkeys without the fur and my dad and aunt and mother told me I was right.

If they find you they will shine bright light at you, point at you with little tentacles on oddly shaped talons, and throw a net over you and you're a goner. My mother said that my eldest grandfather tried to fight against them, and he ended up with a painful stone in his wing.

They carried these sticks, and all you know is that you hear a loud sound and a sharp pain. My grandfather said the humans called them guns but he called them the sticks of doom.

He got away somehow, and told his tale to her daughter who told the story to me, and here I am now. She even said sometimes they would ride inside some weird metal thingy with wheels and lights that made loud sounds, and my father said they were in the same things in both the water and the air.

Flying humans? I didn't believe him when he said that but I saw one with my own eyes. A metal bird that makes a sound so loud you have to cover your ears.

I hate humans. Never met one never will and never want to. That's the biggest thing I was afraid of.

And I hope that they don't appear. I pray.


	2. Chapter 2

**Im currently eating a potato right now. Have a nice day.**

"Its already been decided between me and your father Jewel." My mother nagged me about my responsibilities as the only child of my father.

"Still you guys are throwing me into a jungle with some people I don't even know, the day after my birthday?" I pleaded. "Can I at least get a present, or something saying 'hey thanks for remaining alive another year on the planet!'".

"First of all you don't talk back to your parents. Second of all what me and your father say goes and you can not do anything to change that. You have to learn how to survive on your own if you are to be the next village leader. Understand?" My mother always tried to put things how I could understand them.

"but what…. But what if don't want to be village leader?" I asked trying to find any excuse not to go tomorrow.

"What else could you want to be?" good question.

"besides all children when they turn your age are required to do this, so they could go into adult hood." This caught me by surprise.

"How many kids are gonna be there with me?" I started to get worried. "dad said there would only be fifteen. Twenty at most."

My mother thought to herself is a looked on waiting for an answer.

"Maybe 50 or 80. If you include the red macaw tribe, the golden conures and all the other children attending, maybe 110."

My jaw dropped. Quite literally. I hated being around a lot of people especially people I don't know. And kids from other tribes? I don't know what they are like, I don't want to know either.

"You can't throw us into just a jungle and expect us to live. With members of other tribes kids would attack each other. I thought only the blue macaws were doing this!" I told my mother. She took a seat as she still looked at me.

"the tribes agreed that this would be best for the entire village. If you kids could learn how to work together for a greater good then you will grow up and hopefully solve more problems. But as of right now you have to rest for tomorrow we are bringing you to the pit of doom along with the other children."

My fate was confirmed right at that moment. Destiny spoke to me then and she said clearly, "yup. You're gonna die".

It was at this moment I knew, I messed up.

Later on that night I was sitting on my nest looking outside the window. The sun was now setting and after possibly the worst birthday I ever had, I had nothing else better to do than follow my moms advice.

A familiar figure knocked on the wall next to my room, he stepped inside .

"hi Ju- Ju. Its me!" Roberto said coming inside the room.

"hi Beto how are you?" Roberto didn't answer he just sat next to me.

"aren't you excited for tomorrow? Just think of all the stuff we are going to do!" He said looking at me.

"I can't really say that! I was told we would be surrounded by 110 other kids! From other tribes! In the jungle alone! Doesn't that sound like a disaster just waiting to happen?" I asked him

"Of course. But you never know who you might find as your next best friend. Of course you know… I'm your 'best male friend' but you might find another friend lower than me. There are a lot of cool, wacky and crazy kids in the surrounding tribes."

He had a point, but I was still unsure.

"What if we end up trying to kill each other?" It was still a question in the back of my head.

"don't worry. Everybody inside of the program has only one objective. And that is to survive! We want try to kill each other. That's later on when the drama and anxiety begins to kick in but by that time you forgot your trying to survive."

Reassuring . this is one of the many reasons why Roberto is my best friend.

The pit of doom was an extremely large space inside of the village, made by a cave that collapsed. It was usually made to suit a Fútbol game but now it was used to get all 110 kids together and to send them into the outdoors.

The big, scary, outdoors. My father and mother were with me as my father was one of the people leading us kids and teaching us how to survive.

My mother was there more or less to make sure I don't run off which, believe me, I would of done if it want for the fact so many people were standing around watching.

"Put on your brave face. Nothing could be that bad!" dad said while we were inside.

There were so many birds of all kinds of colors. Some were blue with green streaks on their feathers, some others were red and blue, or orange with red polka dots. Some black and red birds were in the mixture along with golden ones, Grey ones, and some with a light brown color.

It was a huge boiling pot and it was loud. So many birds talking at once almost gave me a headache.

A large sound blew like a whistle and everyone stopped talking and looked at the center if the pit of doom. A fat red macaw was flying in the middle with a couple of assistants getting the attention of everybody.

"alright parents. Its time for your kids to depart. Um… yeah this program runs the risk of death if any of your children gets hurt or killed in the program we are not liable…. Blah blah blah…. Technical stuff and whatever… LET THE ADVENTURE BEGIN!" The announcer yelled.

The entire crowd cheered with a deafening roar. Children began to leave their parents and flew up to the announcer were they lined up to depart.

I turned around and hugged my parents before leaving them. My father put a wing around me and said this. They, don't worry about a thing. Trust your instinct, hold your head high and you will be fine. I promise. And before you leave , May the odds ever be in your favor!" My dad said.

And with that I said my farewells to them and left to join the rest of the group. Oh boy.

After rallying up into a big group we took off and began to fly away from home.

The flight want too long. Only about an hour at most, and all I could see was green, a river cut through the jungle and the terrain rose to form a bluff, and a mountain with a cliff at the end. My father and about fifteen other adults lead the group to the area and were flying ahead , they took a sharp descent as we followed suit.

We landed at the bank of a river. A square shaped area with no trees, sand at the river bank and short grass.

I looked behind me and saw Roberto getting familiar with his surroundings , as well as all the other kids.

"Click!" a sound came from in front of me where a saw a Grey and red macaw blink his eyes and make a click sound.

I was tempted to ask, but refrained at first. Hoping not to offend him. But as he kept doing it my curiosity got the better of me.

"Uhhh. What…what are you doing?" I asked him. He turned around and looked down at me. He was a tall macaw as he peered down at me.

"Oh I have something call photographic memory. I just blink my eyes and make a click sound and I remember it (I doubt this is how that works in real life. Its just a fanfiction) "

I never thought that existed.

The whistle blew again and the chatter died down. Everyone's eyes fixed on my father.

"welcome kids to Canarsie! This is were you will be attempting to survive for 4 months. This will be a hard and difficult challenge but if you try hard Im sure you will succeed. You will each be split into groups that will face the challenges that me and these other adults will present you." My fathers next words were chilling

"only the fittest will survive. Have a nice day."

A few kids fainted, others threw up, others started to cry. I was about to cry too, when I looked at Roberto who was watching me . I couldn't act like a baby In front of him and I held my head.

My dad began calling put names from a piece of paper and people went into a designated area and grouped together.

"Naomi, Jewel, Roberto, Ithaca, Apache, Seneca, Tuskee , Thurgood, Onondaga, and Huey . " My father read of the names of the people.

We all went into a specific area, everyone looked different. Naomi was a girl with white feathers around her face and green feather flowing down from Her head to her wings.

Ithaca was a scarlet macaw with Blu and green feathers tipping his wings and tail.

Apache was a Blu macaw with a white square around his eyes and navy blue feathers.

Seneca was a golden conure with a red circle around her left eye, and a white one around her left eye.

Tuskee had blue feathers with red streaks from his eyes to his tail.

Thurgood and Onondaga were twins with the same features, a white color and a black streak running from their eyes to their chest.

And Huey was the scariest one of all. A owl with brown feathers and white feathers surrounding his face.

Everyone looked at Huey terrified, as he just looked at us.

*narrator

The groups eventually were given names and were instructed to go into the wilderness were their first challenge awaited them.

Finding or building shelter.

Jewel and her group dubbed: Cayuga, went into the forest to build shelter. Even before the journey began problems occurred within the group.

Because everyone was so different people had different ideas and opinions and a fight broke out.

Jewels Pov

Tuskee Roberto and Huey broke out arguing about who should be village leader.

"Your all a bunch of morons if you ever think that these two hideous people could ever lead!" Tuskee said pointing an accusing feather at them. "They are all just covered in Lies!"

"but I didn't say anything!" Huey said to Tuskee

"Clever!" Tuskee said back to him.

"You don't have to worry about Huey, Tuskee! I was born to lead , just look at me. Im suave, handsome, and a-a good singeeer." Roberto said

"What do you mean I have all of those qualities. I am destined to be leader!" Tuskee said.

"Well for one your shorter than everyone else here, you have a short temper, and kind of stupid." Roberto said smugly.

"Huh?" Tuskee got distracted by a squirrel and turned to face Roberto.

"Your also deaf too!" Roberto said.

"If I was death I would be killing you all right now! I am the village leader and with this stick you are all my subjects!" Tuskee said holding up a stock nearly the size of him.

"but-" Roberto tried to get a word in but couldn't.

"OBEY THE STICK!" Tuskee hit Roberto with it crippling him.

He also hit Huey with the stick.

"ow I didn't say or do anything." Huey said rubbing his head.

"That goes for the rest of you too. OBEY THE STICK"

Tuskee held the stick in my face. Everyone else backed away from him.

This would be the worst 4 months of my life.


	3. Chapter 3

We flew around for at least an hour Onondaga looking at a map of the entire region.

A pond with trees around it was found. The trees had holes inside of them that were unoccupied so we decided to make that area our home for the while. The pond was covered with algae.

There was food everywhere as well, even food for Huey. Since he Kate meat instead of fruit which I still can't wrap my brain around.

Anyway this was our base for the night. And we settled in. Seneca was the first to complain however.

"Eww what are we supposed to drink." She asked me.

"The water in the pond, what else?" Seneca looked as if she might throw up

"but the water is green and has dead bugs and stuff inside. Its all murky and muddy and gross."

Her bickering was getting on my nerves.

"listen, either drink the water or die. " I said. She seemed to think about it for a while, which made me feel I won the argument.

I took a bowl made from half a coconut on the floor and scooped up some water.

Ithaca landed next to us.

"hi Ithaca, do you want some water." I held the bowl up to his face and he just stared at.

"see he doesn't want to drink that either." Seneca said to me.

"Well lets have him decide." We both looked at Ithaca.

"I would rather die. " he said

"So what are we supposed to drink?" I asked him.

"Well my dad told me that the vines have some water in them. We cam just cut them open and drink vine water." He said pointing to a tree overrun with vines.

"Drink water from a vine? Are you crazy?" I asked. My sadistic statement didn't bother him though he had already reached the tree and was trying to cut a vine.

Me and Seneca walked up to him and watched. He cut the vine through, and before my eyes there was water flowing out of it.

I was kind if embarrassed I usually want proven wrong, and when I'm proven wrong in front of other people it makes me upset.

So I got angry.

"Well… your face is stupid!" I stomped away and went inside my hollow, Seneca and Ithaca just watched me.

A whistle sound could be heard from where our base was. We knew what the sound was and flew over there were the rest of the different teams were.

My father was as usual at the front of the crowd with a group if adults, but this time a big seagull was with him.

Dad spoke first.

"Okay kids, this will be your first legitimate challenge. You all have to find a way to climb the top of mount Erasmus. "

He pointed to the tallest mountain in the entire region, with a snowy peak and cliff face.

"a flag has been planted on the top, your teams have to reach the top, find the flag, and come back down. There is only one flag."

The crowd began to mumble. Multiple kids started to say that the challenge was easy, a piece of cake, not even a challenge.

But of course, its training they aren't going to give us freebies.

"the catch is, you can't use your wings for anything involving flight. " of course, there was a catch. Always a catch.

The seagull began speaking to us in a loud harsh tone.

"Alright you suckers, you gotta find the flag and bring it back down. No flying going up or down and absolutely positively no cheating. We will know if you forged a flag or not! No in three…" Tusked signaled our team to get ready to begin climbing the mountain, the other teams did the same.

"Two…"

The look of anticipation was on everyone's face, except for a few people behind us but other than that everyone else was excited.

"One…"

I could feel my heart beat inside my chest, but what use would running up the mountain do. We would exhaust ourselves before we reached a couple of feet. I would have observed the slope Mt. Erasmus but there want enough time.

"Goooo!"

Instantly everyone tom off running, most of the kids were only used to walking g and flying and dint know how to run, that included me.

We slipped and trapped and fell all over the ground before we even reached the slopes of Mt. Erasmus.

I looked behind me just as was about to enter into the forest and saw my entire team just walking and taking their time. They had the same train of thinking I had. I wondered how much Tuskee had to do with this since he was the porclamed "leader".

Roberto grabbed my shoulder.

"don't run, we will be too exhausted before we even reach the base of the mountain. We just walk let the other team tire and they will fall behind us."

Roberto always was so wise, I guess.

So the Cayuga's marched into the forest where we started our first challenge.

I hated the journey but one good thing is that I got to figure out the personalities and ways the people in my team act.

Roberto was right, so many interesting and weird personalities.

Thurgood was the exact opposite of his brother Onondaga, always nervous about nature. Scared of everything.

"what was that!" He asked at the base of a mountain after hearing a snap.

"That's a stick." I said to him.

A rumbling sound could be heard.

"What was that?" he asked again.

"It's the other teams war drums." Apache said. Unlike Thurgood he was born a leader, seeming to be able to keep himself together. Roberto told me it was his idea to walk rather than run after arguing with Tuskee, for a good 5 minutes.

Speaking of leader, war drums?

"Wait guys, war drums? Hide!" Tuskee said. Everyone took cover. We looked at were the sound was coming from.

We could see an enemy team, apparently attacking another one and stripping them of their food and tools.

The nightingales , a flag was carried with the name of the group. How they managed to do that was beyond my understanding. They must get along easily and understand each other well.

And they were destroying the other team.

I hid inside of a fern bush. Apache and Naomi were hiding next to me inside of bush. The rest of the team looked on in the tree branches.

We looked on in fear of the other team, they ripped the other team of their supplies left them bruised and injured.

The nightingales left my vison as they continued climbing the mountain. The first group began to get their bearings together.

I saw Tuskee motion with his wing for us to move towards the group that had been attacked, a bad idea in my opinion.

We walked cautiously toward them, Huey was up front as he was the biggest and strongest of us.

Just like a predicted trouble started, one of the members of the group, a raven, jumped to his feet along with a few other members of his group.

A parakeet jumped out of nowhere and tackled me, the fight begun.

We had an advantage as our group had a lot more energy than they did, choosing to walk instead of run, and they just were in a fight also taking some more energy.

After about fifteen minutes the other group gave up and we won, Tuskee took his talon off the chest of a much smaller hummingbird.

"Please just take whatever you want , we give up." The apparent leader of the group a scarlet macaw said to us.

"We don't want anything, you guys are coming with us to the top of the mountain. " Tuskee said to them. Roberto objected to this immediately.

"we can't bring all of them up to the top of the mountain with us, what if they backstab us?" He said into Tuskee's ear.

Tuskee ignored the question, but the other group didn't seem to want to go.

"What? We can't go up there our supplies are gone!" The same scarlet macaw said.

"Well to bad, you are coming with us and will help us find the flag!" Tuskee said holding his stick (he still carried that thing around)

Seeing no other choice (and also being terrified of Huey the owl) they got to their feet and weakly stood up.

"my name is Felipe and we are the Sioux " the Scarlet Macaw said.


	4. Chapter 4

Climbing the mountain was a difficult task. Onondaga lead the group with a map of the area. Thurgood told the group that the both of them had been raised by humans and get into the wild. Hence, how Onondaga was able to red a map.

Thurgood couldn't read the map, his eyes were always focused on other things like looking around his surroundings scared a snake might devour him whole.

The slope of the mountain was steep and after about fifteen minutes of climbing everyone's legs began to give way. Especially the Sioux, already exahuated from two fights.

There was a little flat spot on the mountain, a flat cliff area with a good view of the surrounding area. Twilight was in the sky.

"Im so tired, can't we just rest here." Seneca asked Tuskee

Tuskee was half asleep and was being carried up the mountain by Huey.

Since Tuskee was asleep Roberto decided that he would be leader. We dropped our supplies (mainly food we collected on our hike and sticks we broke off a tree).

The floor was mainly rock with a thin layer of dirt on it. The rock was black with moss colonies growing on it. We used the moss as a bed and fell asleep.

Roberto made his bed not too far from mine.

"good night Jewel" He said.

"Good night Roberto " I said.

"good night Jewel, Goodnight Roberto! " everyone else said mockingly. What jerks.

The Sioux were the last to wake up in the morning, but everyone overslept. The sun was directly above us. Noon, when we should have woke up early in the morning.

We didnt have time to eat breakfast, so we hiked up the mountain on an empty stomach.

Onondaga still navigating with the map.

After about 3 hours of climbing we reached close to the peak of the mountain. The sun its brightest, there were a lot less trees and more soil, rock and moss. It was much colder up there too. From where we were at the peak seemed to have snow on it. Something I never saw before.

The sound of war drums was heard again, not good. The Sioux looked terrified and began looking for any place to hide.

The nightingales were ahead of us but they didn't see us. Even though they had fewer people than us we were still scared of them.

Tuskee and Onondaga desperately looked for a detour to avoid them.

A small path through dense trees and bush was the only available detour, so quietly we took the new path.

We were so close to the top, only just maybe another hour walk. We managed to avoid the nightingales . The downside is we didn't find the flag yet. The other groups were most likely coming to the mountain peak from other sides of the slope. So the flag had to be at the peak.

Another hour went by and this was the worst. Snow covered the ground and the air was freezing. We took moss that grew on rocks and use that as a makeshift blanket, as we marched on.

Most of the group kept complaining. Most of the group, the worst of this all was Tuskee as he was yelling at Onondaga.

"couldn't you find another way to the top without us half freezing our talons off?" Complaining and whining to mainly Onondaga.

You could tell the whining was getting on Onondaga's nerves.

"My feet and legs are cold!" Naomi said . snow covering her legs and feet.

It was unnatural for me and rest of the macaws.

"I live in the cold, this isn't a problem for me!" Huey said. I never really seen an owl before and its probably because they live in the cold.

"I like the cold"

We reached the peak of the mountain finally at long last. The view was amazing, a view of all of Canarsie. Another mountain want too far from the one we where on. That mountain was much taller, much colder.

However the rest of the kids were at the peak of Erasmus too, looking for the flag and fighting.

The teams fought off other teams desperately looking for the flag. But it was no where to be found.

The Cayuga's (us) tried as hard as we could to look for the flag on the snow peaked mountain. To no avail the flag was hidden well.

That's when people started accusing other teams.

"I bet that team Navajo has the flag!" A brown falcon said pointing a finger.

The entire crowd gave up looking for the flag and started pointing feathers. The fight began as people tackled each other grabbed each other by the throat and fighting.

"Wait WAIT! Stop!" Onondaga yelled to all the rest of the kids. Everyone stopped fighting and looked at him.

"If no one found the flag while they were climbing up the mountain, and its not here and all the other groups have it, that means…"

The entire crowd started sucking their beaks, crying, groaning, and just filled with sadness.

Onondaga pointed to the other mountain. The mountain we were supposed to climb.

"what mountain is this then?" I asked.

"Mt. Skywalker. " Onondaga said looking at a different map. The entire crowd spent the rest of the day crying on the peak of the mountain. None of groups even bothered to try and go back down the mountain.

In the middle of the night everyone slept on the flat ground. A flat piece of land that stretched outnin all directions for half a mile, covered in rocks moss and snow.

I still hated snow and I hate Mt. Skywalker too.


	5. Chapter 5

Midnight, it blanketed the mountains that we were traversing with a darkness. We had to be high up the mountains now as we had been hiking for the entire day. Tuskee kept us awake, by forcing us to walk up this whole way.

We each held a small stick with a glowing flower attached to it. It provided limited sight in the darkness but at least allowed us to orientate ourselves and keep each other together. The flower glowed from a dark blue to a dark violet color and was a nice sight none the less.

The Sioux decided safety was better in numbers and decided to stay with us, we were technically allies and our friends. I even got all of their names down: Tex, Felipe, Bubba, Dallas, Forest, and Cleveland.

"Hey, big guy! Can't we just stop here it's after midnight, huh?" Dallas asked Tuskee.

"No. We have to get to the top of the mountain first. I promise we will rest when we reach the 'Kill van Kull' area of the mountain." Tuskee said.

Onondaga said that we would only reach there around 2:00 and by then the other teams would have likely caught up with us if they rested now. Kill Van Kull was a point of the mountain on Onondagas map where a river ran through, and where the steepest part of the mountain elevation began. Kill Van Kull would send a shiver through anyone's spine but was supposed to be the name of the river.

 _Humans and their names!_ I thought. After all, Onondaga was reading off a map made by humans.

"I don't think we should stay out here for too long!" Bubba said. Instantly Seneca and Thurgood agreed with him.

"Come on guys, how many times at home did you get the chance to walk at night through the mountains?" Roberto asked.

"The perfect amount. Zero. This place is scary, and it's dark, an-an-and it's easy to get l-l-lost!" that was Forest, he had a stuttering issue.

"Come on give me a break we will stop, Kill Van Kull should be right up ahead. Water, food, shelter everything." Tuskee tried to calm us down.

We marched along tired. We climbed over a rock slope, a giant wall of rocks, and there was just flat earth. The flat land, according to Onondaga, signified we were approaching the river. I could smell the water in the air too, but trees and the night sky was blocking our view.

After a few more minutes and the soil was mushy and wet, sand and mud basically. Huey and Onondaga took a step forward and were submerged in water up to their knees, we shined our lights around. The tree line ended a few feet away from us leaving a blank area for a fairly large river that ran through.

"Okay, we are here. Let's get back on land and we will sleep here for the night."

I was the last to wake up that day. The morning went by surprisingly smooth. We had conversations, laughed, and ate breakfast as we prepared to conquer Mount Erasmus.

"Breakfast is up guys!" I said flying in wish a variety of fish and fruits in my talons. Everyone looked up at the sky at what I said, expecting food to fall from the sky. It's a little joke we had made.

The fish came straight from the river, it mainly went to Huey and Cleveland, Cleveland being a brown falcon that was actually bigger than Huey.

We crossed the river on a large boat made from a fallen tree. After getting on the other we continued our walk.

The mountains were a much better sight in the day time. We left the jungle yesterday and were now in the much colder forest part of the mountain. Trees I have never seen before were here, the air was a lot drier and coller, more sharp something that could keep you awake unlike the damp heat of the jungle. Basically the air was actually comfortable.

The flat land soon ended and the slope of the mountain increased dramatically, we still pushed on.

"How much more of this slope, huh?" Dallas asked.

"Not too much. We should be out of this in a few minutes if we keep up the pace!'' Onondaga added.

"If I keep up the pace my legs will fall off!" Apache said.

"Well use your legs as picks, and climb your way to the top. We cant stop now!" Ithaca said.

Dallas rolled his eyes and kept climbing. The peak of the mountain couldn't be too far off Onondaga reminded us always, just a few hours. We would surely win.

We could see the peak whenever the tree line broke, a long way leading up to a cliff face. We could also see Kill Van Kull in the foreground after climbing through the tree line. The river cutting through the trees and running off a cliff face.

"Me Thurgood and our father lived in the northeast, you know. They called the land America. Anyways, we would always take nature trips through the northeast like this, in fact I was named after a human tribe in the area where we lived. Onondaga." Onondaga reminded us.

"how come you left," I asked.

"we didn't leave." He left it off like that.

After a few minutes of silence, I had to try and ask again.

"well…what do you mean?" Thurgood answered this time.

"We used to live with a human family. But then someone just took us and ran all the way here. We never saw our father or our humans again."

"oh man," I said to myself.

Everyone got pretty quiet after that. Mainly to conserve our breath and because, you know, something really sad has just been shared. The slope let up a few minutes ago but then began to go up even higher, we were in the final stretch.

We climbed up another rock face, and lo and behold we could see all of the region of Canarsie. There was nothing left to climb, just flat rock and dirt. There was no snow but it was really cold. The trees had leaves on that sheltered us a little but not enough.

"Okay here is what we are going to do. We will split into three groups. Me, Jewel, Onondaga, and Seneca will go search in that part of the forest. Dallas, Forest, Ithaca and Huey will search near the cliff. Everyone else will go to the other forest area to look for the flag." Tuskee said.

I followed Tuskee, Onondaga, and Seneca into the forest. We must have searched for hours but it wasn't up there. We could hear the sound of drums beating. _The Nightingales_

We started searching more frantically, but to no avail. Nothing, zero, zip, goose eggs.

"WE FOUND IT. WE FOUND IT!"

I could hear the echo of Bubba and Felipe's voice from away. We raced back to the area were we began to split up, grabbing sticks and stones in case we met an unfriendly team.

We gathered together, Bubba holding a blue flag made out of some kind of paper.

The Nightingales were in sight, marching up the slope.

"Everyone head to the trees!" said to us.

We climbed the trees to hide from the other people. Their war drums silenced. Not a sound except the rustling of the leaves. Pure silence.

The air and wind itself even seemed to stop. When out of the corner of my eye I saw a blue jay and a lears macaw come into them an huge team of various other birds followed.

The two first birds where talking and I tuned in.

"yeah, Poughkeepsie and Tallahassee are guarding the entrance to the peak."

"I'm pretty sure those other birds are here. I heard them scream that they got the flag." The other bird said.

 _Stupid Dallas_

"The only other group that left Skywalker before us was the Sioux and the Cayuga's. I think they formed some type of alliance."

"Alliance? Is that even allowed?"

"I think so. Anyway, teamwork is kind of overrated I mean what team was Babe Ruth on?''

"The Yankees!"

"It's still dumb."

 _Your dumb_. I thought in my head as they walked right under me. They stopped just under my tree branch and sat down, Tuskee Seneca and Onondaga getting my attention making wing gestures signaling their attack plan.

I liked it.

Seneca held up her wing feathers. Only 3. Then two. And finally one. We jumped down on top of the two birds pushing them into a bush. We covered their mouths until we were sure the other group passed.

"Shhhhh!" I said to them.

"You're going to help us get down this peak!" Tuskee said to them.

"Or else what?" the blue jay asked.

"Well. We do have these stones over here. And bone+ stone equals…well, you could figure that out." Onondaga said.

Scared the two nodded their heads in agreement. We lifted them up onto their feet.

The rest of the Cayugas and Sioux gathered around.

"okay here's the plan, we take out the two guards, make those two lead us down to Kill Van Kull and then take the boat to the other side of the river where we will make our getaway," Tuskee said. Everyone nodded.

We waited. Huey Felipe Roberto and Apache went out to get the guards. They would make a sound to signal us.

After a few minutes, we heard it.

"Scraaaw! A-AAW, YAAAW, LEDLE LEDLE LED- SHUT UP!"

That was it. Minus Huey yelling shut up, ruining the secrecy of the mission. But that call needed to stop.

We took off running, down to Kill Van Kull. The Nightingales probably don't even realize what has happened.

Forest still carried the flag and it waved in the air. We ran down the slope for a good 15 minutes until exhaustion kicked in. we slowed to a walk and regrouped. The other Nightingales probably ran back up the hill to warn the rest of their team. Screw them.

The walk was a long one. It took a full on 2 hours to get to the Kill. The waves of the water sloshing ashore on a sandy beach like area with reeds and Nile plants growing out of the water to land transition. Our boat was still in its original place, but a few meters away we saw big boats made out logs and large leaves, enough to transport the armada of Nightingales.

We traversed the Kill and reached the other side, we would have set up camp here but the Nightingales were probably on our heels. Anyway, another problem much closer than the nightingales faced us.

A group of birds sat at our old original camp picking at the remains of food and resources we used when we were heading up the mountain.

Tuskee told us to try and avoid them, but they almost immediately saw us. They dropped their food and replaced them with sticks stones and other weapons.

We drew our weapons and it was a face off. Ithaca jumped in the middle.

"Woah, Woah guys, slow down. Maybe we can find a peaceful solution to this?" he said.

Both sides shook their heads, Ithaca looked kind of disappointed.

"Or maybe a violent one, but where I'm standing over there," he said pointing at a rock.

"This was our camp get away now or we will pursue you and take your flag." A Spix macaw from the other side said. I looked behind me. On the other side of the kill the Nightingales were boarding ships to cross to the other side. Not much time.

"Wh-wh-who are y-y-you?" Forest asked.

"We are the Dakota." The same Spix macaw.

"Well, you should know this used to be our camp!" Dallas said.

"Guys the Nightingales are coming across the river!" I said. All three teams (well technically two the Sioux and Cayuga's were united now.) looked at Kill Van Kull to see warships with the Nightingales coming ashore.

"They are the only reason why we don't kill you off now! The next time we meet we will be enemies!" A turtle dove said.

We continued walking, the Dakota going a different path than us, and we walked down the mountain.


	6. Victory

**I have decided to continue on this story. i havent abandoned it and i hope i wont abandon Rio: The Great Open.** **Review and please suggest a new name for this story, im thinking of changing this and the cover picture entirely.** **(P.S. To the Bootleg Boy, can you give me a new cover picture, yours are amazing)**

The bottom of the mountain. I wanted to be here for so long and now… here we are.

"That was a hell of a getaway huh" Huey said.

"Yeah I cant wait to see the look on the Nightingales faces when they find out we escaped with the flag!" I said out of breath.

We weren't out of danger, not yet anyways. We only had maybe a few kilometers left before we reached the bottom, The Sioux had been our friends and I was going to admit I was kind of sad to depart from them. But there was another problem, who would turn in the flag? The point had to go to one of the teams I doubted it could go to both. We decided not to talk about it and agreed to let the judges decide (the judges being my father and that seagull he flew with).

The ground began to even out, the air became warmer and much more moist, and the plants took on a more tropical form. We reached the bottom of the mountain, finally I was free! I could walk wherever I wanted without falling off a cliff.

"So Ju_Ju, we didn't die going on this trip after all, huh?" Roberto poked at me.

"It was only our 3rd or 4th day in, we still have an entire 4 months ahead of us Beto", I said rolling my eyes.

" 4 months", Seneca repeated. She too was out of breath, she hated everything about this camp. She was the definition of a neat freak, grossed out by everything and anything. She always complained and was so pathetic. It was honestly sad.

Today wasn't any different.

"Eww, its so muddy and gross around here, Im getting my talons full of dirt and muck" Seneca was about to panic.

"C-C-C-COME ON! Cant you s-s-stop c-complaining!", Forest yelled.

"Calm down forest, sure she complains a lot and its annoying but what can you expect, she's a girl." Cleveland said, hanging off of that last word.

"And whats that supposed to mean?" I snapped at Cleveland who backed away fast.

I was about to fight with him but Roberto pulled me away.

"Okay, oKay calm down Jewel. He is a jackass he doesn't know what it means to be normal", Roberto said in my ear.

"Come on guys we don't have time for this. We have to keep moving before the other groups catch up with us. We should have gained the upper hand at Kill Van Kull but they might have crossed the river or ran back down the mountain to catch up to us. Time isn't on our side here." Tuskee said pointing ahead.

I shot a evil glare at Cleveland and I walked forward.

The ground evened out completely and the clearing was just ahead. It must have been past noon the sky was already transitioning from a light to darker blue.

My father and a group of other adults waited in the center of the clearing.

"Forest you have the flag right ?" Felipe asked.

"Yeah, h-h-hey w-we still ha-havent figured out who is-s going to get the point or n-not." Forest said.

"lets just bring the flag to Eduardo and he will decide, right?" Thurgood began questioning himself. Once again.

"Right on", Felipe said.

By the time we reached my dad, everyone was practically climbing on all fours. We were exhausted.

"hmmm." My dad said looking over the flag, the group of adults with him reviewed the flag, and looked at it closely.

Come on dad just give us the point already .I thought.

"Well this flag is authentic, but the point has to go to…"

Everone leaned in to find out which team would win.

"Both of you, you were the only team to work together to find and capture the flag. Very wise choice, we hope you make the same choice in the future." The seagull next to my dad said to us.

"That's finally over, now can we fly back to our shelter, Pleease?" Naomi said, clutching her wings.

Everyone else agreed and waited for a answer.

"Yeah you guys go home and rest while we wait for the other teams." My dad said.

Finally.

Before I took off, my dad grabbed my shoulder I turned around and looked up at.

"Whats up, dad?"

"I just wanted you to know. I always knew your team would win, simply because you are on the team."

"Thanks dad" I hugged him tightly and went to join my team.

We all slept in the same hollow (a bad idea since Tuskee snored, a lot). Me and Roberto couldn't talk to each other like normal friends without someone saying "ooooohhh" or shooting a occasional whistle.

We slept so early that late at night everyone woke up, way before we were supposed to.

Naomi and Seneca talked about things I could never understand (what is a the point of applying clay to your face if that clay just needs to get washed out of your feathers and that takes at east an hour?), everyone else played games, outside.

I refused to go outside, during the night that is. Who knows what evils lurk in the undergrowth.

The algae pond suddenly had a whole bunch of waves on it. I heard a splashing sound.

"aww man this water is gross!" Huey's voice resonated through the jungle.

I could hear laughter coming from the people who pushed him in.

This commotion was strong enough to distract even Naomi and Seneca from their annoying and brutally long conversation.

Huey emerged out the pond, he had green all over him, he charged into the undergrowth to chase the people that pushed him in the lake.

Then all of the sudden Tuskee jumped into the hollow laughing like crazy. He held his stomach and almost fell forward of laughter.

"You three should have seen it [haha] it was hilarious…[chuckling] I pushed Huey into the lake and he got soo mad. And the best part is…. He doesn't know its me he is going to blame Onondaga!", he finally fell on the floor laughing.

"Boys." Naomi shook her head. "Don't they know that algae doesn't help at all with the feathers".

"Huh?" Tuskee was confused.

He looked at me.

"any idea on what they are trying to say?" he asked me pointing at them.

"No breakthroughs so far." I said.

"You guys are a bit judgmental don't you think?" I said to them.

Naomi rolled her eyes.

"Come on Seneca. Lets go somewhere else. We are obviously not wanted here" the two flew away somewhere, and it was just me and Tuskee.

"So what are you doing here?" I asked him.

Tuskee was pulling a leaf blanket over him in his bed.

"Hiding from Huey, you?"

"Im just here bored I guess." I said.

"Hey I found a rock. Wanna play catch?" Tuskee held up the rock.

And that's what I did for the next 20 minutes.


	7. Chapter 7

**this has to be the longest chapter I ever made, in the amount of words that is. Sorry I took a while to make. Review and favorite so I know you enjoy this.**

"4 years ago… I was with at my grandfathers house. My brother, my mother my father, everyone was there. And me and my brother were supposed to live there for a few months, until my father could find us a real home to stay in. And god… I hated that place. Every night we ate fish, the ones with the small bones that when they go down your throat it scratched it and would cause a little pain.

My grandfather loved the fish and he always ate them for dinner, every night. And he picked the ones with the most bones in them…and every time he ate the fish the bones would get caught in his throat. He would start hacking and coughing, until my mother or father told me or my brother to get a bowl of water or some mango juice and give it to my grandfather. Every night he would eat the bones of the fish, and every night he would begin to choke." Huey shook his head as he spoke.

"The old man couldn't help himself though, he loved fish but the fish didn't love him. And every time he started choking on the fish my brother or myself had to go fetch some water. My family was so stressed out, when we leave how would grandpa get by? If he started his choking session if we weren't here, he would surely die. It was worst for me and my brother, we both wanted the old man to stop eating the damn fish!"

I leaned in closer to the owls story, the hollow we were sleeping seemed to grow darker as the story kept up.

"Now the reason I never ate another fish in my life I will tell. I hate fish… it was a day like any other. My brother, his name was Quincy, and myself were the only ones at the dinner table. My grandpa finished telling some story about how he used to be a star soccer player when he was my age, and more about his passion for fish. And as usual he started to choke on the bones, I was about to get up and go get the water but I didn't move… his coughing became worst and it was clear that he was in pain, he signaled for us to go get the water, but neither me or Quincy made any attempt to go get it.

We just looked at each other, then back at the old man… his coughing became violent, and he started spitting up mucus. Me nor Quincy made any attempt to get the water. He became desperate swinging his wings around as he choked. After a few more minutes the old man stopped moving. He was cold, that night my brother Quincy tucked me in bed and put himself in bed to make it seem like we were asleep during the whole ordeal. He said to me 'The old man had it coming'. Our parents were so heartbroken, and they said to the both of us that grandpa went away on a vacation and would never come back because the weather was too cold. Ever since that night, a fish never crossed my beak again", Huey finished his story.

"Goodnight, and sweet dreams." Huey said in a kind of devilish way.

He waded his way to his bed in the dark hollow.

I heard the chattering of someone's beak coming from the bed above me.

"Hey, how come Huey is tucking us intoned telling us the scary story? " Apache asked somewhere from in the hollow.

"Because I'm the oldest one here. Not to mention you guys couldn't come within a mile of my story telling. " Huey said.

"Your stories aren't that scary, okay", Ithaca said.

"Tell that to Seneca", Naomi pointed at Seneca's bed.

"Seneca is scared of her own shadow, its not that hard to gross or freak her out." Roberto pointed out.

"I-im -not s-s-scared." Seneca said her beak still clattering.

"sure, alright everybody get some rest we have a huge day tomorrow", Tuskee lectured us.

The morning. Everyone in the camp was gathered at Canarsie, breakfast was being served at a man made shelter net to the river. The shelter seemed to be some sort of human storage house but we converted it into a dining hall.

Cayuga sat at a table near a window, and immediately I lost my appetite.

"You know, if you put a little salt on it they aren't that bad!" Apache said, showing down on a fresh roasted centipede.

I shook my head and pushed my mango away from me.

Everybody else's breakfast didn't look that appetizing either.

A fried mouse for Huey, a cockroach for Onondaga and Thurgood, some kind of worm/caterpillar rotisserie for Naomi. Everyone else didn't seem to eat, or want to eat. Seneca wouldn't even touch her bowl of water (this could still be from the story Huey told earlier).

My dad came over to my table and said hi to everybody and asked how the breakfast was, but I knew he came specifically for me.

Me and him talked about normal father-daughter stuff but other than that he just left.

That's when people started to notice.

"Hey, if Jewel is the big boss's daughter. Then that means that he is more likely to help us and be more biased towards us." Onondaga said before biting on a roaches head.

Everyone at the table then just looked at me.

"Uh, well… see um my dad doesn't really do favors, you know?" I said awkwardly.

That's when the begging came, I hated that.

"Aw come on, you could tell your dad to at least give us a map of the area, or a spear to hunt with. " Tuskee said to me.

Everyone followed suit, with the please and begging.

"No I can't, that's cheating. Cheating is bad, being bad means you get disqualified. And if they catch my dad what will happen to him?" I said.

"Yeah Jewel is right, lets do this the easy straightforward way. No cheating no sideswiping no lying. " Roberto came to my defense.

"I don't remember you being a saint Roberto, but anyway we should…not cheat because… That's bad. And being bad .means we could get booted from the game." Naomi said.

A few minutes later we all stood outside waiting for the director of the camp to tell us what to do.

"Listen here everyone, I may not have introduced myself yet but my name is Luke. I am the camp director here in Canarsie. I was the one who created the hiking challenge up Mt. Erasmus, and I heard you guys had a lot of fun hiking up the wrong mountain (please don't remind me), anyway I coordinate all the activities here and we have another challenge for you guys. " Luke raised his wing. The seagull looked over all of us, he had a kind of laid back and relaxed accent. America, or Canada but he definitely wasn't from Brazil .

"Today your next challenge is to race to the finish line, but you don't have to run. We will hike through the mountains and hills of the Appalachian mountains. Once you cross that you must cross the Paerdegat river valley." Luke finished.

"Paerdegat? How do you pronounce that?" Ithaca asked.

"Then once you cross the Paerdegat river valley you will find Eduardo,and the camp assistant director, Hyde (he pointed at Hyde a tall crow who stood next to the seagull) , there you will receive a baton and you must carry it back here where there will be more adults here to check you. This journey should take no longer than a day or two, but beware there are a lot of dangers along the way. There will be obstacles along the journey and at each a adult will be stationed there waiting to give you instruction to make sure you survive. And to assist you on your journey you will be assigned a adult to lead you through the hike, Good luck and remember have fun!" Luke finished his lengthy speech and my father came up to the podium.

"Alright, we will split you all into teams. Hideaway: Cayuga, Lenape, Shawnee, Dakota, and Sioux! You guys are on team Hideaway, you are the youngest in the camp and you must work together to survive in the middle of the Appalachian mountains. Hideaway, Luke will guide you along the Appalachian trail, and he will be your instructor from then on. Good luck and safe travels." My dad officially sent us off into the middle of the jungle with a complete stranger and about 30 other kids.

Luke, a young white, male seagull held up his wing.

"Hideaway with me!"

We went over to Luke, he was at the edge of the clearing, near a trail and a big box of supplies and some other stuff.

"Hey Luke, you are going to stick with us for the entire trip?" someone from the Dakota asked.

"yeah, I kinda have to you guys don't know where to go." Luke said.

I looked at Onondaga who always carried a map but he remained silent.

Luke called us into a congregation in front of him.

"So I will be staying with you the entire way, you guys know my name and I hope I learn yours along the way. Now im sorry for the Mt. Erasmus challenge, that one was kind of not planned to well and one kid actually broke his leg on the hike and had to be taken home."

As expected there was the usual murmuring among the crowd.

"You guys must stay with me. The path is very dangerous if you don't know what you are doing",

Likes voice became deeper a little less hazy and a whole lot more serious.

"Last year we had a kid die because he was bitten by a poisonous insect after straying off the trail. I don't mean to scare you but this is serious." This shocked everyone, someone died attempting this.

Luke leaned in and lowered his voice to a whisper.

"But honestly out of the other 5 teams, I think that you guys are going to be the winners by at least a mile. So I have high hopes for this year."

The other teams were assigned and then we were off.

Luke led us into the forest, the first challenge was making our way up the hill to the beginning of the trail.

The clearing was surrounded by both sides by steep hills, the path to the top covered in rocks. We were allowed to fly but we wouldn't be able to fly far, the dense jungle would make it hard to fly around, and we wouldn't be able to fly too high either. Some tried and worked it out but they still had to remain behind Luke who had chosen the easier method of walking.

The hills cooled down. At least for now.

After about a half hour of walking my legs grew sore. I think it set in everyone's legs too.

"At this rate, I don't think we have too much farther until we can just sit down and relax", Roberto said

"What do you mean by relax? I don't need to relax, I'm not tired", Tuskee said his ego not to be outdone.

"Well if that's the case I wasn't talking about you", Roberto said once again.

"Hey Luke. How much further do we have to keep up before we stop?" I asked him.

"The first challenge should be about two or three kilometers away. Don't worry we will stop before then", Luke said, eyes set on the trail.

Apparently all the other teams went up a different path to challenge number 1, and Luke said that the way were going diverged off our main path but was faster than the original path we went along.

But faster didn't always mean better, the dirt path was incredibly narrow, tree roots, rocks, fallen trees etc. clogged the path. At this rate we were going only a little faster than we would have on the main path, so Luke made us walk faster.

The one benefit about this is that it doesn't cut through as many steep hills, rather it wraps around them on the more easy going slope so the terrain will get gradually steeper, but not so much that you have to climb on all fours.

The sun began setting and as Luke promised, we stopped. To Luke's surprise we were actually ahead of schedule. We stopped in the middle of the forest and build a shelter. There we spent the rest of the night.


End file.
